Artificial Grass vs Turf Cost Calculator UK

Type your lawn size. See what artificial grass and real turf cost, fitted by a pro or laid yourself.

Made by BuildersCount · Last checked 4 Oct 2026 · Our sources

Measure the area

LengthmWidthm

Measure the lawn area only.

Your answer

For 49.0 m²

£2,940

Artificial grass, fitted

£1,960–£3,920

£1,983

Artificial grass, DIY

£1,362–£2,644

£980

Real turf, laid

£735–£1,225

£334

Real turf, DIY

£205–£632

Artificial grass, fittedBase and grass, fitted. Checkatrade gives £45–£80 and MyBuilder £40–£80 per m².
Artificial grass, DIY£20 grass, buying 15% more than the lawn. Base about £17 per m². No tools, skip or glue.
Real turf, laidTurf and laying. Cost guides give about £15–£25 per m².
Real turf, DIYTurf with VAT, plus Rolawn's 5% for cutting, at the 50 m² price. Smaller orders cost more per m² (see the table).

These are typical prices, not quotes. Ask local fitters for a price for your garden.

Prices we used

Fitted and laid prices come from UK cost guides, and most don't say if VAT is in. Turf prices are sellers' prices with VAT. The DIY grass figure is our middle of Checkatrade's mid-range band and LazyLawn's prices (Oct 2026).

Quick answers

Artificial grass, fitted: About £40–£80 per m², with the base (VAT not stated). We use £60.
Artificial grass only: Budget £9–£14, mid-range £14–£24, premium £25–£45 per m² (Checkatrade).
Real turf, laid: About £15–£25 per m², turf and labour (VAT not stated).
Real turf only: £6.49 per m² is the middle for a 50 m² order, with VAT. Small orders cost up to £12.29, and you need 5% extra for cutting.

How to work it out

Measure the lawn in metres. Multiply length by width to get m².
Multiply the m² by each price per m² to get the cost of each choice.
The low and high figures show the usual range from our sources.
For DIY, we price 15% more grass, or 5% more turf, than the lawn. Under grass we add Type 1 and sharp sand.
Change any price under "Change prices" to match your quotes.

30 m² × £60 = £1,800 (artificial grass, fitted)
30 m² × £40.46 = £1,214 (artificial grass, DIY)
30 m² × £20 = £600 (real turf, laid)
32 rolls × £6.89 = £220 (real turf, DIY, at Rolawn's price for 32 rolls)

Artificial grass vs turf: cost by lawn size

Pick the row nearest your lawn. Each column uses our middle price per m².

Cost of each lawn, by size
Lawn	Grass, fitted	Grass, DIY	Turf, laid	Turf, DIY (Rolawn)
20 m²	£1,200	£809	£400	£186
30 m²	£1,800	£1,214	£600	£220
50 m²	£3,000	£2,023	£1,000	£344
100 m²	£6,000	£4,046	£2,000	£618

Fitted grass at £60, DIY grass at £40.46 and laid turf at £20 per m² of lawn. DIY turf is Rolawn's price for that many rolls, with 5% extra.

Turf for a small lawn costs more per m². Rolawn's price falls from £12.29 per m² for 10–19 rolls to £5.89 for 100 or more. Our turf calculator has the full price table.

What a fitted artificial lawn includes

Checkatrade broke down a 30 m² job from its 2024 price table. Prices may have gone up since.

A 30 m² artificial lawn, fitted
Part	Cost
Labour	£600
Grass (£22.95 per m²)	£689
Skip	£220
Crushed granite (1.5 tonnes)	£180
Membrane and 8 bags of kiln-dried sand	£67
Total	£1,756

That is about £59 per m². Labour and grass are most of it. The skip, base stone, membrane and sand make up the rest.

DIY: what you still pay for

You buy more grass than the lawn area, because of roll widths and trimming. We price 15% more, as in a Namgrass example. Under the grass, we add 75 mm of MOT Type 1 and 20 mm of sharp sand. At £75 a bulk bag, that is about £17 per m². Our artificial grass calculator counts the tonnes and bags.

Fake or synthetic grass: price per square metre (m²)

Artificial grass is also called synthetic, fake, plastic, false or imitation grass. Some people say AstroTurf, which is a brand name. Prices depend on the quality of the grass.

Grass only, per m²
Grade	Checkatrade	We use
Budget	£9–£14	£10
Mid-range	£14–£24	£20
Premium	£25–£45	£30

Checkatrade's supply-only bands (VAT not stated). Our figures sit inside them.

Shop prices we saw, per m²:

LazyLawn: £8.99 (on sale) to £31.74, with VAT.
Namgrass Pragma: £31.40, its list price (VAT not stated).
B&Q, own brand: £15 a metre off a 4 m roll on sale (VAT not stated). That is £3.75 per m².
A B&Q website seller: £126.95 for 4 × 4 m (a shop price; VAT not shown). That is £7.93 per m².

Real turf: cost of laying turf per m²

Checkatrade: labour £10–£30 per m², about £20 on average, plus VAT. Turf itself is about £5 per m².
MyJobQuote: about £15 per m² for turf and laying.
MyBuilder: about £15 per m² all in. Labour and prep are £5–£12 of that.

A gardener charges about £150–£200 a day, says Checkatrade. Poor soil may need new topsoil first. Our topsoil for lawn calculator works that out.

Questions people ask

How much does artificial grass cost per m²?

Checkatrade gives £9 to £45 per m² for the grass alone (VAT not stated). LazyLawn's garden grass ran £8.99–£31.74 with VAT. Fitted, with the base, it is about £40–£80.

How much does it cost to have artificial grass fitted?

Checkatrade gives £45–£80 per m² with the base, and MyBuilder £40–£80. Checkatrade's turfing guide gives a lower £30–£60, so prices vary. At £40–£80, 30 m² costs about £1,200–£2,400.

Is artificial grass cheaper than turf?

Not to put in. 30 m² of fitted grass costs about £1,800, and laid turf about £600. We have no UK upkeep costs, so we can't say when grass pays back.

How much does it cost to lay turf per m²?

Checkatrade gives £10–£30 per m² for labour, plus VAT. MyJobQuote and MyBuilder say about £15 per m² for turf and laying.

Do artificial grass and turf prices include VAT?

The turf prices and LazyLawn's grass prices include VAT. Most cost guides don't say. Checkatrade's turfing guide lists VAT as an extra.

How long does it take to fit artificial grass?

Checkatrade says 1–2 days for 40 m², and 3–4 days for 70 m². Fitters charge £300–£600 a day.

How much is turf per square metre, and per roll?

Rolawn and Turfonline sell turf in 1 m² rolls, so a roll costs the same as a square metre. For about 50 m², the middle of 3 sellers is £6.49 per m², with VAT. Small orders cost more: Turfonline charges £10.02 a roll for 10 rolls.

What makes a new lawn cost more?

MyBuilder says hard site prep adds £10–£20 per m². Drainage or infill adds 10–20%. For turf, Checkatrade puts levelling at about £20 per m².

Where our numbers come from

Made by BuildersCount. Last checked 4 Oct 2026.

How we work out our numbers About us Found a mistake? Tell us